1. Field of the Invention:
This invention is in the field of machines for performing a series of steps in the process of manufacturing an electronic micropackage. A plurality of integrated circuit (IC) chips are each bonded to a separate flexible lead frame. Each lead frame is in turn secured to a segment of a film strip and each segment is held or mounted in a fixture. Fixtures holding predetermined numbers of predetermined types of IC chips are stacked in a magazine. The machine sequentially feeds a fixture from the magazine to a punch press which blanks the chip and part of its leads from their lead frame, forms the leads and properly places or mounts the chips and its leads on a multilayer substrate of a micropackage. Control of the machine is preferably exercised by a microcomputer.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
The development of integrated circuit (IC) chips, particularly medium and large scale IC chips, has created a need for automating the blanking and forming of the leads of IC chips and the placing of such chips and their leads on chip pads and chip lead pads associated with each chip pad of a multilayer substrate with a sufficient degree of precision so that the chips and their leads can be soldered to their respective pads with a minimum of human intervention. An IC chip and its formed leads, a formed leaded integrated circuit chip, is also referred to as being a "flic", and a chip pad and its associated chip lead pads on which a flic is placed is also referred to as being a "flic" site.
The relevant prior art, as known to applicants, has used two different punch presses, one to blank a chip and a portion of its leads from the balance of their lead frame and another to form the leads, primarily because the leads are made of a very thin ductile metal, copper 0.0014 inches thick, for example. Such thin metal leads have not heretofore lent themselves to being cut and formed in a single operation. Alternatively, the leads are preformed by one punch press and then the chip and its preformed leads are excised from the balance of the lead frame in a second operation. Placing of flics or flic sites of a multilayer substrate has heretofore been done by human operators.
The prior art has not, to applicant's knowledge, developed a machine to place a large number of flics on predetermined flic sites of a multilayer substrate. Because of the small size of a flic and the precision required to properly place a flic on its designated flic site, the human operator must observe the process under a microscope, tedious process. As a result, the time required to mount all the flics on flic sites of a multilayer substrate is substantial. In some cases it takes a skilled operator up to eight hours to properly place 110 flics on the flic sites of a multilayer substrate with the required degree of precision.